36
Then Jacob became incensed and brought charges against Laban. "What is my crime?" he said to Laban. "What is my sin, that you have pursued me?

37
You've searched all my possessions! Have you found anything of yours? Put it here before my relatives and yours, and let them decide between the two of us.

38
I've been with you these 20 years. Your ewes and female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams from your flock.

39
I did not bring you any of the flock torn by wild beasts; I myself bore the loss. You demanded [payment] from me for what was stolen by day or by night.

40
There I was-the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.

41
For 20 years I have worked in your household-14 years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks-and you have changed my wages 10 times!

42
If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, certainly now you would have sent me off empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and my hard work,i and He issued His verdict last night."

43
Then Laban answered Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters; the sons, my sons; and the flocks, my flocks! Everything you see is mine! But what can I do today for these daughters of mine or for the children they have borne?

44
Come now, let's make a covenant, you and I. Let it be a witness between the two of us."